8/29/2007

By request, the eleventh episode in the series, “It’s Higgins, Sir” aired September 11, 1951, a summer replacement series for Bob Hope’s Pepsodent program starring Harry McNaughton, Vinton Hayworth, and our good friend Pat Hosley.

Jerry Haendiges, he of The Vintage Radio Place and the original source of this series, has provided us high-quality masters of this entire series from which to create the MP3 files; while we’re distributing 32kbps MP3 files of these programs, you can find excellent-quality audio CDs at his website - go to the order page and use #40960 A for this episode. (Also, high-quality MP3s of this program are also available from Jerry in his MP3 Catalog.)

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog’s RSS feed with any podcasting client (iTunes, Juice, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

I don’t know why I’m so sensitive lately to “drive-bys” - those people who subscribe to the Internet OTR Digest to use the subscribers there then immediately unsubscribe…I mean, this is nothing new. People have been using those with knowledge with no recompense since time immemorial. But hot on the heels of the recent drive-by who wanted to sell some worthless 1980’s-era syndicated discs comes a producer making a living on an idea borrowed from Old-Time Radio, producing a documentary on a famous CBS newsman (who came up with the original idea) who hits the Digest, receives the audio clips he wanted, then immediately runs (unsubscribes).

Ok, I can understand how a guy who managed to make a living off of a non-original idea from OTR doesn’t really need to actually know anything about OTR…I mean, in many ways I’m glad the guy isn’t paying attention or he’d probably “liberate” other ideas from OTR and appropriate and copyright/trademark them, too. But, and maybe I’m being overly-sensitive here, I’m getting weary of people using the good people on the Digest to make money for themselves without giving the hobby any respect whatsoever. Look, if I ask for information or a specific program on the Digest, I generally receive bunches of replies or offers - I figure I owe those people something for being so generous, so I post programs here and try to promote the hobby in other ways to in some small way “pass it on,” giving back a small percentage of what I’ve been given by these folks. People who just take from these amazing people without giving anything back to the hobby are, in my humble opinion, despicable.

Maybe I’m just cranky…been a little under-the-weather lately. I need to get another episode of It’s Higgins, Sir! posted today, as I’ve been quite lax there due to my sniffles, and I’ve been promising a public radio producer/host I’d get off my rear end and help her with some geek stuff, so today is the day I snarf down some coffee and get my act together. ;)

8/28/2007

From KenVincent.com: Move Along (This page links to three different article on the subject)

More problems with Public Radio, this time KUOW’s management ignores the achievement and popularity of their on-air staff. This isn’t anything new, and simply replicates in a local form the lack-of-concern about audience desires NPR has displayed over the years.

As usual, I recommend you not support NPR-member stations. There are plenty of alternatives that deserve your financial support much more; alternatives that don’t treat the listener as some moronic cash-cow.

8/26/2007

We had a little trouble with our DSL after a neighborhood-wide power outage last night, so when I got it back I had better than a score of spam emails to go through. I know, this is nothing new, but it’s annoying nevertheless. But these aren’t the spam I wanted to talk about…

In something that is not terribly unusual for the Internet OTR Digest lately, a “drive-by” spammer tried to subscribe and immediately post looking for information…no, really an appraisal and hopefully a sale…for an insignificant 80’s era Mutual record set. He didn’t give a rat’s tail about OTR, he just wanted to use the mailing list to sell something he found in someone’s attic (or, considering his lack of morality, maybe swiped from an elderly woman he knocked down). I did what I usually do in such situations; I suggest to the poster they read the Digest for a few weeks before posting, so they can get a feel for what is and is not normal for the mailing list. And he did what most of ‘em do in such situations; immediately unsubscribed annoyed that someone was paying enough attention that he couldn’t use the list as a sales tool for worthless “historical recordings.” He didn’t care a whit about OTR, he only wanted to trick some newbie to the hobby into buying his records for as inflated a price as he could muster.

I usually don’t gripe about such things, but for some reason this slimeball annoyed me enough to post about it, to not only get it off my chest but also remind you that spammers and scammers are everywhere - even when they sound like human beings.

8/24/2007

From the editorial: “The reason why the price freeze and new packages by themselves cannot fully protect satellite radio consumers is that XM and Sirius compete along multiple dimensions for subscribers, including programming choice, equipment, and the amount of commercial time (virtually none today). Committing to refrain from adjusting one of these levers of competition for a fixed duration does not protect consumers against a degradation of programming, an increase in equipment costs, or a sudden infusion of commercials.”

8/17/2007

I received a request through the “Contact the Webmaster” button over there on the sidebar for episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly; while I usually post more…obscure programs (I know, I probably shouldn’t, but I’ve been collecting so long I sometimes get bored with the same old Suspense and Jack Benny Programs I’ve heard time and time again, so I’m always looking for oddball programs that you, gentle reader, might not have taken the time to hear before), how can I refuse a request?

But there were no specific episodes in the request, so I was in a quandary - which ones to podcast? One of the most amazing things about being me, running the Internet OTR Digest and all, is that while I am not an expert on any particular program, I almost always know experts for any given show. In this case, I contacted Al Girard, he of the Unofficial Fibber McGee and Molly web pages, and asked him which episodes he would recommend. From his list, this is the chronologically next episode having aired May 20, 1941 (exactly 57 years before Katie’s birth). Enjoy!

8/16/2007

By request, the tenth episode in the series, “It’s Higgins, Sir” aired September 4, 1951, a summer replacement series for Bob Hope’s Pepsodent program starring Harry McNaughton, Vinton Hayworth, and our good friend Pat Hosley.

Jerry Haendiges, he of The Vintage Radio Place and the original source of this series, has provided us high-quality masters of this entire series from which to create the MP3 files; while we’re distributing 32kbps MP3 files of these programs, you can find excellent-quality audio CDs at his website - go to the order page and use #40959 B for this episode. (Also, high-quality MP3s of this program are also available from Jerry in his MP3 Catalog.)

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (iTunes, Juice, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

8/15/2007

As some of you know, I’m…er…cheap. Ok, look, I’m an old man with a nine-year-old, so there’s not much disposable income anymore. And also as most of you know, I have a bunch of XM Satellite Radios around, all but the first one bought at substantial savings over “retail” (no, no, I don’t have a “guy,” I just am always watching out for sales and such). One of the radios I have is a Samsung Nexus 25…actually, we have two Nexus 25’s (from henceforth known as the Nexii); one I was given as a Christmas Present from my wife and my daughter, and the second was a killer deal from Crutchfield a while back that included a $55 XM prepay card, bringing the price of the unit down to under $15, including shipping.

(A quick explanation about how the Nexus works; there are actually three parts, all required: the Passport, the Nexus, and the cradle. The Passport is the XM Satellite Radio…it contains the Radio ID for which I pay, and is a cool system so that no matter how many Passport-ready XM radios you have, you only pay for the one subscription, and wherever the passport is, there you are (of course, thanks to the knuckleheads threatening to merge, this cool technology will probably be smashed by the Sirius overlords, assuming those of us vehemently against the merger can’t get it stopped). The Nexus is the player, allowing for recording of live XM while in a cradle, and when out it’s an XM/MP3 player only. The cradle is the piece that puts it all together. So if Annie has the car, she can take the Passport and her Nexus and listen live. When I have the Passport, she listens to recorded XM material (she still has like four hours of the St. Patrick’s’ Day Celtic Channel on it) and MP3s (her Marshall Chapman tunes, some Old-Time Radio) while I’m listening live. Both Nexii run off of the same Passport, so this only counts as one “radio.”

Each of the Nexii came with a home kit, but neither of them came with a car kit. Now we’ve had XM radios in the car for a while now (beginning with the Roady2 I activated in September 2004, running through the Tao XM2Go which was also a loyal and faithful servant), so not having one in the car now seems kinda silly. But I didn’t have a car cradle for the Nexus, just two home cradles…which look identical, but have minor differences (only in the home cradle will the radio record scheduled programming, and only the car cradle has an FM transmitter - didn’t need that, since my car is old and has a tape deck). So instead of spending $70 on a car kit for my Nexus, I decided to use the spare home kit in the car.

This sorta assumes the Nexus isn’t your first radio, and you already have mounting hardware in your car (if you don’t, this doesn’t make much sense). It also assumes you have a spare home kit, or are planning to carry your home unit back-and-forth (this is perfect if you want to record The Bob Edwards Show in your car while you’re at work, BTW). Either way, this is about as close to a “0″ on the difficulty scale as you’re gonna find…honest, this is simple. Copious photos after the jump…(more…)

There goes one of my favorite shows. Mantegna is an uninspiring actor (best-known in this household for butchering the character of Spencer) and certainly no replacement for the excellent although troubled Mandy Patinkin.

8/14/2007

I received a request through the “Contact the Webmaster” button over there on the sidebar for episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly; while I usually post more…obscure programs (I know, I probably shouldn’t, but I’ve been collecting so long I sometimes get bored with the same old Suspense and Jack Benny Programs I’ve heard time and time again, so I’m always looking for oddball programs that you, gentle reader, might not have taken the time to hear before), how can I refuse a request?

But there were no specific episodes in the request, so I was in a quandary - which ones to podcast? One of the most amazing things about being me, running the Internet OTR Digest and all, is that while I am not an expert on any particular program, I almost always know experts for any given show. In this case, I contacted Al Girard, he of the Unofficial Fibber McGee and Molly web pages, and asked him which episodes he would recommend. From his list, this is the chronologically next episode having aired April 29, 1941. Enjoy!

8/12/2007

By request, the ninth episode in the series, “It’s Higgins, Sir” aired August 28, 1951, a summer replacement series for Bob Hope’s Pepsodent program starring Harry McNaughton, Vinton Hayworth, and our good friend Pat Hosley.

Jerry Haendiges, he of The Vintage Radio Place and the original source of this series, has provided us high-quality masters of this entire series from which to create the MP3 files; while we’re distributing 32kbps MP3 files of these programs, you can find excellent-quality audio CDs at his website - go to the order page and use #40959 A for this episode. (Also, high-quality MP3s of this program are also available from Jerry in his MP3 Catalog.)

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (iTunes, Juice, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

I received a request through the “Contact the Webmaster” button over there on the sidebar earlier this week for episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly; while I usually post more…obscure programs (I know, I probably shouldn’t, but I’ve been collecting so long I sometimes get bored with the same old Suspense and Jack Benny Programs I’ve heard time and time again, so I’m always looking for oddball programs that you, gentle reader, might not have taken the time to hear before), how can I refuse a request?

But there were no specific episodes in the request, so I was in a quandary - which ones to podcast? One of the most amazing things about being me, running the Internet OTR Digest and all, is that while I am not an expert on any particular program, I almost always know experts for any given show. In this case, I contacted Al Girard, he of the Unofficial Fibber McGee and Molly web pages, and asked him which episodes he would recommend. From his list, this is the chronologically earliest having aired October 22, 1940, and featuring Harold Peary as Gildy. Enjoy!

8/10/2007

Ah, out with the old, in with the new. The television season is dead, long live the next television season. And to prepare for it, I’m going to review new shows as the pilots become available.

Pushing Daisies; ABC, Wednesday, 8:00 PM

You know, I was beginning to think I was getting soft…the last few pilots I watched, I liked, which made me wonder if I was getting too soft to be reviewing television. Thankfully, along came Pushing Daisies, a program that wants to be quirky and ends up just being creepy.

Anna Friel and Lee Pace, not touching, with Chi McBride

There’s this guy, Ned (Lee Pace, Wonderfalls who plays the character as so standoffish we don’t care about him - this role needs a Thomas Cavanagh-type, someone who can be endearing while standing apart) who when he is a boy discovers the strange power to bring dead things back to life; but in standard television fashion, there are more rules to this than there are to Deal or No Deal. 1) If the creature he brings back to life lives for more than one minute (thank heavens god or whatever supreme being this show accomodates lives by our watches), something else in the vicinity will die, and 2) if Ned touches the living being again, it will die forever (no word on whether or not the thing that died after the first minute comes back to life in that case - also no word on what plant dies when Ned brings strawberries back to life for his pies). So the main plot driver is that Ned works with a private detective named Emerson Cod (Chi McBride, The John Larroquette Show, Boston Public, Killer Instinct, The Nine) to find murder victims, bring ‘em back for a minute to ask who offed them, then touch ‘em again within that minute timeframe so they can die again. When not reviving corpses and then sending them back to death, Ned is the baker and owner of The Pie Hole, having something to do with his mother having been baking pies when she died, was resurrected, and then died again when she kissed him goodnight. Working there is Olive (Kristin Chenoweth, The West Wing), who has a crush on Ned, but Ned gets a little nervous touching the living, so she’s left out in the cold.

If you aren’t completely creeped out yet, it gets better. One of the victims Emerson has Ned revive is his first crush, Chuck (Anna Friel, The Jury); as you’d expect, Ned can’t bring himself to send her back, so their love affair is rekindled, in spite of (or more likely because of) that whole if-they-touch-again-she’ll-die-forever thing. The plot of the pilot deals with Chuck’s aunts, Lily (the delightful Swoosie Kurtz, Sisters, Huff, who seems to have had a little too much cosmetic work done) and Vivian (Ellen Greene, Little Shop of Horrors) receiving the item Chuck was smuggling (don’t ask) and being targeted by a killer we never know.

So apparently this is going to be part fantasy, part detective mystery, part unfulfillable love story…but mostly it’s a silly mish-mash with plot threads knotted so badly that no one is going to bother to try to unravel them. Catch the first episode or two of this one while you can…I’d be surprised if it outlasts Smith.

8/9/2007

By request, the eighth episode in the series, “It’s Higgins, Sir” aired August 21, 1951, a summer replacement series for Bob Hope’s Pepsodent program starring Harry McNaughton, Vinton Hayworth, and our good friend Pat Hosley.

Jerry Haendiges, he of The Vintage Radio Place and the original source of this series, has provided us high-quality masters of this entire series from which to create the MP3 files; while we’re distributing 32kbps MP3 files of these programs, you can find excellent-quality audio CDs at his website - go to the order page and use #40958 B for this episode. (Also, high-quality MP3s of this program are also available from Jerry in his MP3 Catalog.)

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (iTunes, Juice, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

8/7/2007

Ah, out with the old, in with the new. The television season is dead, long live the next television season. And to prepare for it, I’m going to review new shows as the pilots become available.

Reaper; CW, Tuesday, 9:00 PM

Yet another tired twist on a tired formula…once you see this, you’ll miss the old show Brimstone.

Sam (Bret Harrison, The Loop) turns twenty-one today, and finds out this is gong to be about the worst day of his life - where up to now his parents (Allison Hossack, Falcon Beach and Andrew Airlie, The L Word) have let him slide and do anything he wants to do, while pushing his brother Keith (Kyle Switzer, 15/Love), today they give him the interesting news that before he was born, his soul was sold to the Devil. Today is the day the Devil (Ray Wise, Twin Peaks, 24) takes his due. Sam is to become a Reaper, one who captures and returns souls who have escaped from Hell.

Giving the devil his due; Ray Wise and Bret Harrison

Now understand, unlike Ezekial Stone in Brimstone, who needed to shoot the escaped souls in the eyes, Sam needs to use a “vessel” to capture each one…this episode’s vessel is a DirtDevil hand vac (DirtDevil…get it? Real subtle, kids…), and his escaped soul is a firefighter who is setting fires all over town.

Add to this the twenty-something angst of him trying to ask his co-worker Andi (Nikki Reed, The O.C.) out for a date, and his getting other co-workers Sock (Tyler Labine, Boston Legal, Invasion and the stereotypical loser hippy) and Ben (Rick Gonzalez, Coach Carter) involved in his reaping, which involves Sock’s ex-girlfriend Josie (Valarie Rae Miller, Dark Angel), and oh, the merry mixups that can come into play.

(*sigh*)

Ok, some of the sequences were cool. As someone who has in his lifetime driven a Zamboni, the ice resurfacing sequence had me giggling a bit. The computer graphics were sorta cool in the firewalker sequences, and having the DMV be a portal to Hell didn’t seem to me to be so far away from the mark. Still, all in all, this is a program that doesn’t know what it is…unlike Supernatural, which walks the line between spooky and sappy with extraordinary aplomb, this thing just doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be when it grows up.

Contrasted to Brimstone’s Detective Stone, Sam isn’t a flawed nuanced character but rather an innocent sold into damnable slavery even before his conception…while there may be some pity for him, the character doesn’t have much to bite into starting out. And though I relish the chance to watch Ray Wise work (no one…I mean no one… can do smarmy like this guy - his mouth smiles while his eyes threaten unspeakable horrors), this doesn’t have much else going for it. The rest of the cast is competent but uninspiring, the plot predictable, the characters stereotypes, and I’m guessing even the running gags like the vessel-of-the-week will wear thin in a few episodes.

Sam’s destiny is to be a reaper. Mine is to look for better television programs to watch.